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Laptop Trouble Tips
The concept of a separate custom designed WSAD keypad has been in existence for half a decade now, with products such as the Saitek Cyborg gaming pad, the Wolf Claw and its variants, the very unwieldy Claw, and Belkin's Nostromo N52 Speedpad. However, the idea of a dedicated gaming keypad hasn't quite caught on. The question is, do you really need one? Yes - if you are in the market for a gaming keyboard, which is rendered practically obsolete by gaming keypads. That's because almost all contemporary videogames require a keyboard-mouse combo, wherein the WASD configuration uses only 25 percent of the keyboard. A gaming keyboard therefore lengthens an existing bulky design with additional macro keys, when it should ideally do away with 70 percent of the keyboard.
An oversized gaming keyboard when combined with a large mouse mat spreads your arms in an awkward V-shape that will eventually give you sore joints, in addition to bullying you into using only a fraction of your expensive mouse mat. This can be fixed with gaming keypads such as the Razer Nostromo or the Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. Their tiny footprint ensures improved ergonomics and allows optimum utilisation of extra-large mouse mats. Now that it's established why you need one, let's see if the Razer Nostromo gaming keypad has what it takes to edge out your keyboard.
The very first thing we noticed about the Nostromo was the most disturbing. Apparently, the suits at Razer have struck a deal with Belkin that allows them to rebadge the Nostromo N52 Speedpad as the Razer Nostromo. While the gaming gear manufacturer has successfully improved upon existing products such as the Razer Onza - a precision engineered version of the Xbox 360 controller - the operative word here is "improve". The Razer Nostromo is Belkin's N52 Speedpad with a trademark black colour scheme and some backlighting thrown in for measure. Is the Belkin so perfect that Razer's engineers found no possible way to improve its design, or is the gaming gear veteran simply being cheap and lazy with a soulless rebadge? Well, that's what we're here to find out.
The face key placement is well thought-out and effective. Razer, however, cannot claim any design credit for the rebadge. The WSAD movement, Q/E leaning, and R/F keys for the reload and use functions are arranged in a discrete 2x4 grid. The ZXC modifiers, employed for crouching and going prone, form the second cluster that's placed at a lower height. This, when combined with their sharp angle, helps your fingers slide unobtrusively from the WSAD cluster on to the ZXC keys. The final cluster of facekeys features the Tab, Caps Lock, and Shift modifiers - again placed at a different height, angle, as well as slightly offset along the vertical axis. The Shift key has an acute angle that makes it easy to locate the oft-used sprint modifier.
This is where things go downhill, as the rest of the design negates the good karma of the face keys. The ergonomic wrist pad conforms to the shape of the palm, but its huge hump makes it impossible for one to use the thumb with the face keys. Yes, the opposable thumb - nature's greatest gift to mankind and the most dextrous appendage in the human body. Using the WSAD keys without a thumb is manageable until the point one has to hit the ZXC modifiers. Having to crouch or go prone requires the use of your ring, index, or middle finger. If you then intend to simultaneously use the WASD keys to move, you'll find that you've run out of digits. This flaw is partially illustrated by the image below.
The scroll-wheel is stuck uncomfortably under the hump of the wrist-pad, and there is absolutely no way to reach it in a dignified manner. The face key portion is flanked by a pod bearing a circular button mapped to the Alt key by default, and an eight-way D-pad with a detachable knob that turns it into a pseudo-thumbstick. A useless one, I must add. It's best to chuck the detachable knob away for good and use the D-pad to select weapons. That's because the Nostromo shockingly lacks the topmost row of numeric keys, which are imperative for quick access to one of Quake 3 Arena's eight guns, to cite an example. Moreover, the D-pad is still stiff, imprecise, and a pain to reach unless you have big, ogre hands. The circular button is perfectly placed, but the tactile response is too spongy and lethargic to my liking.
The spacebar is replicated by a Caps Lock sized button that can also be assigned to toggle between keymap profiles. It's placed unergonomically below the D-pad, and even a medium sized hand will overshoot the button. Speaking of size, the wrist-pad can be detached and adjusted in two positions that seem to be perfect for tiny Korean hands or large European ones. My average-sized Indian hand, however, had problems reaching the keys in either setting. The humongous hump made it a bitch to reach the ZXC row at the bottom with the Korean setting, and my relatively tiny Indian fingers couldn't reach the topmost row of face-keys at the European setting.
Razer's "Configurator" software does a good job at basics such as keymapping, macros, profile assignment, and lighting control. You can set eight different keymaps, which can be selected using either the ill-placed scroll wheel or by choosing a button. These keymaps can be assigned to 20 different profiles each, which are linked to the game executables. The Razer configurator can then call up an appropriate profile when you fire up one of the 20 games. Profiles can also be exported and imported, allowing gamers to download one for their favourite game right off the Internet.
When I put the Razer Nostromo through the paces in old school FPS classics such as Far Cry, Serious Sam, Quake 3 Arena, and Unreal Tournament, the aforementioned gremlins made me want to revert to a regular keyboard. The less demanding and leisurely paced modern console ports like Crysis 2, however, were a bit more manageable. Overall, I found the regular keyboard better suited to FPS games. On the other hand, RTS and RPG games seem perfect for the Nostromo. The intuitively arranged face-keys made easy work of selecting squad formations, spell casting, and party management, as well as shortcuts for weapon sets, potions, and squad groupings. The device's advanced macro management is a boon for RTS and RPG titles as well. Anything else that doesn't require a mouse is best handled with a regular keyboard or gamepad for obvious reasons.
The Xbox 360 controller, rebadged as the Onza, shows that Razer can improve an already competent design when it wants to. However, it has shown plain laziness by rebadging the Belkin N52 Speedpad as its own product without putting in any R&D or engineering effort. This apathy is amply evident as the rebadged Razer bears all the damning flaws of the original Belkin device. The Nostromo gaming keypad is a missed opportunity for Razer to showcase its design ingenuity. It could have been an awesome product, had Razer ironed out its design flaws. Before reaching a conclusion, we need to ask ourselves if it is fair to pay anywhere between a street price of Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 3,400 for a carbon copy of something that's still available at a slightly cheaper price. Wouldn't that be akin to paying a premium for a Hyundai rebadged as a BMW?
An oversized gaming keyboard when combined with a large mouse mat spreads your arms in an awkward V-shape that will eventually give you sore joints, in addition to bullying you into using only a fraction of your expensive mouse mat. This can be fixed with gaming keypads such as the Razer Nostromo or the Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. Their tiny footprint ensures improved ergonomics and allows optimum utilisation of extra-large mouse mats. Now that it's established why you need one, let's see if the Razer Nostromo gaming keypad has what it takes to edge out your keyboard.
The very first thing we noticed about the Nostromo was the most disturbing. Apparently, the suits at Razer have struck a deal with Belkin that allows them to rebadge the Nostromo N52 Speedpad as the Razer Nostromo. While the gaming gear manufacturer has successfully improved upon existing products such as the Razer Onza - a precision engineered version of the Xbox 360 controller - the operative word here is "improve". The Razer Nostromo is Belkin's N52 Speedpad with a trademark black colour scheme and some backlighting thrown in for measure. Is the Belkin so perfect that Razer's engineers found no possible way to improve its design, or is the gaming gear veteran simply being cheap and lazy with a soulless rebadge? Well, that's what we're here to find out.
Nostromo's quarter kilo heft ensures that it won't squirm under your palm, thanks to six sticky rubber feet. Most gaming keypads require one to get used to a radically new layout, but that isn't the case with this device. This pad has the same WSAD configuration placed in a perfectly aligned grid, as opposed to the staggered rows of keys found in a regular keyboard. I found Razer's symmetric grid of 14 face keys more intuitive than the one found in a regular keyboard. Nostromo's grid has three separate clusters of keys segregated intuitively according to their roles. Moreover, each cluster features face keys set at different angles and varying depths, which makes touch-typing (or touch-gaming in this case) an effortless affair.
The face key placement is well thought-out and effective. Razer, however, cannot claim any design credit for the rebadge. The WSAD movement, Q/E leaning, and R/F keys for the reload and use functions are arranged in a discrete 2x4 grid. The ZXC modifiers, employed for crouching and going prone, form the second cluster that's placed at a lower height. This, when combined with their sharp angle, helps your fingers slide unobtrusively from the WSAD cluster on to the ZXC keys. The final cluster of facekeys features the Tab, Caps Lock, and Shift modifiers - again placed at a different height, angle, as well as slightly offset along the vertical axis. The Shift key has an acute angle that makes it easy to locate the oft-used sprint modifier.
This is where things go downhill, as the rest of the design negates the good karma of the face keys. The ergonomic wrist pad conforms to the shape of the palm, but its huge hump makes it impossible for one to use the thumb with the face keys. Yes, the opposable thumb - nature's greatest gift to mankind and the most dextrous appendage in the human body. Using the WSAD keys without a thumb is manageable until the point one has to hit the ZXC modifiers. Having to crouch or go prone requires the use of your ring, index, or middle finger. If you then intend to simultaneously use the WASD keys to move, you'll find that you've run out of digits. This flaw is partially illustrated by the image below.
The scroll-wheel is stuck uncomfortably under the hump of the wrist-pad, and there is absolutely no way to reach it in a dignified manner. The face key portion is flanked by a pod bearing a circular button mapped to the Alt key by default, and an eight-way D-pad with a detachable knob that turns it into a pseudo-thumbstick. A useless one, I must add. It's best to chuck the detachable knob away for good and use the D-pad to select weapons. That's because the Nostromo shockingly lacks the topmost row of numeric keys, which are imperative for quick access to one of Quake 3 Arena's eight guns, to cite an example. Moreover, the D-pad is still stiff, imprecise, and a pain to reach unless you have big, ogre hands. The circular button is perfectly placed, but the tactile response is too spongy and lethargic to my liking.
The spacebar is replicated by a Caps Lock sized button that can also be assigned to toggle between keymap profiles. It's placed unergonomically below the D-pad, and even a medium sized hand will overshoot the button. Speaking of size, the wrist-pad can be detached and adjusted in two positions that seem to be perfect for tiny Korean hands or large European ones. My average-sized Indian hand, however, had problems reaching the keys in either setting. The humongous hump made it a bitch to reach the ZXC row at the bottom with the Korean setting, and my relatively tiny Indian fingers couldn't reach the topmost row of face-keys at the European setting.
Razer's "Configurator" software does a good job at basics such as keymapping, macros, profile assignment, and lighting control. You can set eight different keymaps, which can be selected using either the ill-placed scroll wheel or by choosing a button. These keymaps can be assigned to 20 different profiles each, which are linked to the game executables. The Razer configurator can then call up an appropriate profile when you fire up one of the 20 games. Profiles can also be exported and imported, allowing gamers to download one for their favourite game right off the Internet.
When I put the Razer Nostromo through the paces in old school FPS classics such as Far Cry, Serious Sam, Quake 3 Arena, and Unreal Tournament, the aforementioned gremlins made me want to revert to a regular keyboard. The less demanding and leisurely paced modern console ports like Crysis 2, however, were a bit more manageable. Overall, I found the regular keyboard better suited to FPS games. On the other hand, RTS and RPG games seem perfect for the Nostromo. The intuitively arranged face-keys made easy work of selecting squad formations, spell casting, and party management, as well as shortcuts for weapon sets, potions, and squad groupings. The device's advanced macro management is a boon for RTS and RPG titles as well. Anything else that doesn't require a mouse is best handled with a regular keyboard or gamepad for obvious reasons.
The Xbox 360 controller, rebadged as the Onza, shows that Razer can improve an already competent design when it wants to. However, it has shown plain laziness by rebadging the Belkin N52 Speedpad as its own product without putting in any R&D or engineering effort. This apathy is amply evident as the rebadged Razer bears all the damning flaws of the original Belkin device. The Nostromo gaming keypad is a missed opportunity for Razer to showcase its design ingenuity. It could have been an awesome product, had Razer ironed out its design flaws. Before reaching a conclusion, we need to ask ourselves if it is fair to pay anywhere between a street price of Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 3,400 for a carbon copy of something that's still available at a slightly cheaper price. Wouldn't that be akin to paying a premium for a Hyundai rebadged as a BMW?
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